Many people asked me how to do this, heres your awnser, with only illustrator and photoshop you can do almost anything. In this Tutorial you will start with the making of a logo shape, going to rough 3D, and finishing it in Photoshop. This is so easy that even the starting beginner can do it.
Illustrator Lets Go
Create a new web document doesn't matter the resolution since we are working in Vectors here, just remember to use RGB.
Now with your document created lets go to the tool bar and pickup the Elipse tool or hit (L) on your keyboard, remember to hold down shift while doing this circle so it stays perfect.
Go to the top of your screen, take off the Fill color choose None, and put a stroke of 25pt.
Now that we got our Circle done lets make a Fill instead of a stroke. Go to Object -> Expand, a window will come up make sure you got Fill and Stroke ticked, click ok.
See.. Now your shape as a fill and no stroke, that's the way to go.
Joining Up
Get the line segment tool, and make vertical line, set the background to none, put the stroke to 25pt as our circle, finally go to Object -> Expand.
To make sure we got this perfectly aligned press command+Y or for windows user ctrl+y this way we get to the Outline Mode and zooming as much as you want to make sure both objects are aligned.
After the Vertical alignment is good press again command+y or ctrl+y to get back to normal view. Now get a ruler here. command+R or Ctrl+R and push one from the top so it aligns with the top of the circle, after that simply push your rectangle until it hits this ruler. ok? Perfect!
The Evil Pathfinder
The pathfinder is a must know tool in Illustrator, here we don't cut like photoshop, we extract objects using objects. Ok lets move on, go to Window -> Pathfinder.
Now we will join this objects together, it's very simple, just select both objects and click "add to shape area" in the Pathfinder window (see image).
But we aren't done. It looks like it did nothing, but in fact you just need to go to Object -> Expand Appearance and voila your 2 objects are now just one.
Cutting Objects
Make a simple square and rotate it like this. Hold down Shift for a perfect 90º rotation.
Now put the shape like I did here, and with both objects selected hit the Vertical alignment button on top (see image).
Everything is aligned, lets select only the square now, click the right button of your mouse and go to Arrange -> Send to Back.
Again bring up the pathfinder, and with the two objects selected hit "minus back" in the pathfinder window.
Our logo shape is finally done. Easy huh?
The 3D part
After we got our shape done give it a light color so we can see the object in 3D perfectly.
Ok now go to Effect -> 3D -> Extrude Bevel, use the following settings, or what you like most.
Click ok and now we got our 3D object, but to edit it we need to expand appearance, so Object -> Expand Appearance.
Giving it light
Create a new gradient, window -> gradient, you don't have to use my colors so just make sure you got a light a medium and a dark version of your color. Make a Radial version and a Linear one.
With the Direction Selection Tool (A) select the inside of the object like we did, remember to zoom so we get all shapes, if you have to go one by one.
Now with the radial gradient we created selected simply drag from the bottom middle to the top, try different times until you are happy with it.
Now the front of the shape, using the gradient tool again start from the middle and go out of the object so that the light comes from the middle, remember use radial gradient here.
For the other parts just use the same but this time Linear Gradient, try to match mine, it's easy simply select each shape with the directional selection tool, get your gradient and try it out.
Photoshop
Place your Illustrator shape in a new Photoshop Document, give your new document a 800x600 I think that will do, after you place it Rasterize the layer. Create a new layer and put it below your logo layer, name this big shadow. Get the elipse selection tool and make a selection like I did.
Great now get the gradient tool (G) and make it black to transparent and click the radial option.
Start from the middle and straight out until you get something like this.
Go to Filters -> Gaussian Blur -> and give it a nice blur in our case we did 6.0 but if you are using a diferent size it may not suit you, just try different settings until you got it.
Get the opacity down to 30%. Create another new layer and name it small circle do the same thing as you did for the big circle, but put the opacity to 70% and dont forget the gaussian blur 4.8.
Hold down ALT+SHIFT and drag your circle to the other part of the logo so it copies it. Perfect!
Just one more little tweak, select the top of the logo (that little square) create a new layer and name it shine, do a gradient of white to transparent with the linear option selected.
Shiny Lines
Perfect, give it a opacity of 80%. For those little shiny lines, create one more layer, name it "little lines" get the pen tool (P) and make a selection like I did.
Now select your brush tool (b) and put the master diameter to 1 and hardness to 100%.
Go back to the pen tool (p) and hit the right mouse button and click stroke path. Select Brush and click OK.
Give the "little lines" layer a Overlay and put down the opacity to around 58%.
We could play with this a little more, give it some texture or noise to make it feel more realistic, but for this we think it works.
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Comments
1Ali Salem
June 20th, 2008 at 6:46 amMan thanks a lot!
2Eli
June 20th, 2008 at 7:07 amBeautiful outcome, and nice looking site you have here. The colors used in the logo really make it look great.
3greven
June 20th, 2008 at 6:07 pmGreat tutorial.
Simple and effective! 
Bom post outra vez.
4ROBERT
June 21st, 2008 at 6:35 amthanks
5thazer
June 21st, 2008 at 4:16 pmsweeeeet tut!! thanks!
6ice
June 22nd, 2008 at 9:11 amwoow ! nice
7Marc
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:55 pmHi, I did this tutorial, and well when it talks about hitting (A) to get the direct select tool and select the small shapes, I am unable to do that, it just selects the shape over and over again. I am using Adobe Illustrator CS3, I don’t know if you used a different version. Any help would be appreciated, thank you.
8Duarte Pires
June 24th, 2008 at 5:22 amHi there Marc, you have to expand the shape first, select the object and go to Object Expand Appearance, after that you can select individual shapes.
9ZaFaR
June 26th, 2008 at 10:59 pmcongrats! keep up the good work!
10huszone
July 1st, 2008 at 8:14 ammate great skills and talent. keep it up
11Daniel Skinner
July 1st, 2008 at 9:07 amIs there anyway to achieve a similar effect but still keeping the entire logo as a vector?
Dan
12Duarte Pires
July 1st, 2008 at 11:38 amYes Daniel, in this tut I haven’t showed all the things to do in photoshop, I also burned the logo and there are tons of thing you can do in photoshop that you can’t in illustrator, But I will do in the future a how to do a 3d looking logo again, but this time illustrator only and no Typo, only shapes.
13Daniel Skinner
July 1st, 2008 at 11:40 amDuarte, Thanks - that’s a good way to get people to subscribe. I’ll wait for that tutorial to show up in my RSS reader!
Thanks
Dan
14Duarte Pires
July 1st, 2008 at 11:43 amThank you for subscribing.
15Daniel Geraldi
July 1st, 2008 at 6:08 pmVery cool!
Thanks!
16gen
July 2nd, 2008 at 8:12 amwow! amazing tut. I remember seeing this logo on Faveup.com and I was blown away about how good it was and was wondering how it was made.
17yuriy danilov
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:22 amNice!
18Ashraf
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:54 amYou don’t need Photoshop to do anything in this tutorial. All these steps can be done in Illustrator! (CS2 and up)
19Jeff Justice
July 6th, 2008 at 8:23 pmHey! Great tutorial… Thanks.. But it could have been easier to do with the simplest 3D apps…
20Pox_Staff
July 7th, 2008 at 2:23 pmWow. You made it so simple. I saw another tutorial at tutorial9 using photoshop and was wondered if it was not easier in Ill. Good job.
21Matt
July 8th, 2008 at 2:08 amHey, I am following along with this tutorial (because it looks awesome) and have encountered a problem. Not sure if i’m doing it wrong, its assumed knowledge I don’t know or you forgot to write something in lol.
I am trying to do a similar thing on another shape however when I try to the gradient this happens… any reason why?
http://img.skitch.com/20080708-tmthdxpptmyyxhr8f3835td6y8.jpg
[ZOOMED IN 600%]
Cheers,
Matt.
22Duarte Pires
July 8th, 2008 at 6:03 amHi Matt, what you doing is giving it the Gradient but you need to get your Gradient tool and select witch side you want it to start and finish, otherwise it will give a individual gradient to all. Example: Click on the right side of your screen, and drag it to the left side, this will have a nice gradient from the right to the left.
23Matt
July 8th, 2008 at 6:10 amThanks!
I will try that now
Cheers,
Matt.
24Dan
July 8th, 2008 at 8:30 amsuper
25Boombuz
July 12th, 2008 at 8:47 amThats an excellent tutorial, trying out now!
26Kiten
July 13th, 2008 at 12:19 pmGood work, its look great
27James Kurtz III
July 14th, 2008 at 5:03 pmVery nice. Thank you.
28Ryan Flynn
July 15th, 2008 at 3:03 pmExcellent tutorial - this is the first tutorial I have ever done in Illustrator, the first anything I have done in illustrator - the fact I was able to get it done speaks to how well this is written.
-Mucho Thanks!
29jasmine celion
July 16th, 2008 at 7:38 amThis is really nice tutorial thanks for sharing it
Nice [post thanks for sharing it
jasmine celion
cool-hotstuff.blogspot.com
30Danh ba web 2.0
July 16th, 2008 at 11:26 amThanks for share! Good blog !
31Jwm.
July 17th, 2008 at 4:23 pmVery useful, thanks a alot!
32Matan AKA BendaMan
July 17th, 2008 at 8:22 pmHi, this is my first tut’ in illustrator and I have a problem with the Direct selection tool, I cant it don’t give me select the dots anly the all shape and i can see the dots (becaus i did the expand) but still I can’t select them :\
pls HELP !
Matan.
33-Rizz_DogoDesign-
July 18th, 2008 at 12:58 amThanks! very useful tutorial!
34Chekill
July 19th, 2008 at 9:24 pmDAMN! WHAT A EASY WORK! JAJAJAJA IS TOO FAST! SO SIMPLE! AND SOMETIMES WE ARE BLOCKED ABOUT HOW TO SOLVESOME WORKS! WE HAVE TO READ; TO INC¿VENT! THANKS! THIS IS NOT A “HOW TO…” THIS IS AN: OOOPEEENN YOURRR MIINNDD!!!! The answers are in our own hands! Damn! jajaja! THAAAANNNXXX!!!!
35Caerolus
July 24th, 2008 at 4:15 pmHey man. Nice work. I’m trying it but I’ve got this problem:
http://pub.caerolus.com/illustrator.jpg
Seems that the 3D is not done properly, like there were missing parts.
Any ideas? Thanks!
36dogorgod
July 27th, 2008 at 4:27 amVery nice!
Signed reprint it,thanks u~
37Fhad Saud
July 30th, 2008 at 2:54 amThanks!
I try that now
it is great
38FullDevr
July 30th, 2008 at 5:13 amExcelente tutorial
Keep on going
39Ines
July 31st, 2008 at 3:30 amNice…well done =)
40Alex Samsonas
July 31st, 2008 at 9:55 amreally cool
41vasir
July 31st, 2008 at 10:33 pmgreat tutorial!
42Hedva
August 14th, 2008 at 4:32 amhi, i tried your tutorial but i’ve some problems;
http://i36.tinypic.com/2n00qap.jpg
43Caerolus
August 16th, 2008 at 6:45 amSame happens to me. Any ideas?
44Vahid
August 18th, 2008 at 5:28 amwow thx, very helpful
45adhonys
August 26th, 2008 at 6:02 pmExcellent tutorial, congratulations.
i want to post it on my blog.
with your permission.
46joonbug
August 27th, 2008 at 11:30 amthanks a lot bro! very helpful
47JONxBLAZE
September 1st, 2008 at 9:38 pmVery nice tutorial…Illustrator is awesome!
48LifesizeStudios
September 1st, 2008 at 10:32 pmGood tut
a few things could have been quicker, but a few things were definitely quite quick.
Everything could have stayed right in Illy tho.